It is usually the carers that deliver the major part of a person's care and support.
It is therefore natural that carers are actively involved both in the care and treatment of that person (e.g. at case reviews in hospital or in the community), and in service strategy and developments.
The carer has a right to be involved (by the 'Key Worker') in care meetings of their loved-one (usually subject to their permission, which may be present / absent at different stages). Many carers find it distressing if their carer role seems un-recognised, un-valued or un-respected by staff, or their loved-one excludes them.
Carers can bring to bear their long-term, in-depth, care for and knowledge of the person, where staff may only have known them for days. Carers may well have useful knowledge of e.g. the person's likes, dislikes, distress signs and signals, allergies, interests, work, social and medical history.
The staff can bring to carers an understanding of e.g. what is happening and when, how systems and medications work, what the diagnosis means and what the future may hold, better preparing carers for their role in supporting their loved-one - and feeding the Carers Assessment process
This might be compared to the standard 'shift hand-over' between one set of staff and the next.
Since service provision directly affects their loved-ones, which then directly affects carers, carers should be effectively and systematically involved in more long-term developments, e.g.:
- Policy and service reviews
- Service strategy meetings
- Local Implementation Teams (LIT's)
- Service development planning
- The Commissioning process
Useful sources of information about (non-) involvement are:
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